When I had finished talking to Mrs. Birder, I realised she was the most interesting person I had ever met. She told me of the way Forest used women and had completely lost, or spent, the whole of his family fortune. Another thing that interested me; she seemed to know a lot about Masque. Though, when she did speak about him, she sounded, almost frightened of him. What she actually said was, “Have you seen the host’s castle? More like a nightmare on a mountain, a madhouse built by a madman!” She went on to say, “But do you want to know a little secret? Masque ran out of money after building it. All gone. And none of these desperate people on board know, except me.”
I said goodbye to Birder, and descended the stairs. I thought about Iain Masque having no money. This was something else that made the guest list more intriguing.
As I looked around, I saw sofas, plants, pictures, photographs, maps and chairs. The low mahogany-wood ceiling had lights with red shades hanging from it. The walls were burgundy and cream stripes, finished off with a wooden border. In the corner of the room, there was a bar with a man wearing a military-style, mustard-coloured suit, drinking red wine. I made a mental note to remember to get Burton a drink.
In a red and gold chair, nearest to me, sat a man, clad in a purple suit. I advanced on him, and then he spoke
“Oh hello. I say, didn’t we meet at the museum gala last spring…perhaps not,” he added as I shook my head.
I looked at the small coffee table in front of the man and saw a brown folder with ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ stamped across the front, and the name ‘Professor .T. Pipe’ was scrawled across the top.
“So, what draws you to this little party professor?” I asked.
“Why the amazing collection on this ship. Strange lot, don’t you think? Nearly every object was collect by Sir Alexander Black, an amateur Egyptologist. He died though, with his wife in a tragic plane crash, and he had a son, Xavier, who survived, but disappeared off the face of the earth. The thing that interests me though, is how did Masque get all the artefacts? Can you tell me that?”
When my eye-opening conversation with Pipe had finished, I learnt that he was at the party hoping to get Masque to fund his expedition to the Gobi Dessert.
I walked away from the professor towards the man behind the bar, and asked him for a drink for Burton.
“Ahh. You must be the investigator I’ve heard people buzzing about. I did my fair share of investigating for the military you know.”
After Colonel Brown and I had got to know each other a bit better, and he gave me a drink for Ms. Burton, I went upstairs to give it to her.
On my way to the stairs, I noticed a man in a black and red suit. I thought to myself, this must be Martin Urfe, the magician. Well, he didn’t look much like a magician. His suit had been darned in several places, and looked rather old. As my eyes met his face, I thought he looked terrible. His skin was unnaturally yellowy, and the dark patches around his eyes made him look as though he hadn’t slept for weeks.
“Ahh, the special guest,” he began. This altered me. What did he mean, ‘special’?
“Allow me to introduce myself,” he continued, “Martin Urfe, amateur magician and penniless land baron. Masque is very eager to meet you. He asked me if I would give you the key to the cupboard that stores the Chinese puzzle Box. Be a good sport and run it over to him.”
“Certainly,” I replied, and took the key he offered me and went on my way to give Burton her drink.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“I’ve got to go…I’ve…got…something to do.” With that I turned on my heel and left the deck.
I’d seen the cupboard Urfe spoke about when I first entered this area. I went slowly over to it, being closely watched by beady-eyed Mrs. Birder. I placed the key into the lock, turned it, and it clicked. I opened the cabinet door and looked at the artefacts on the glass shelves. The top one had an extremely decorated box on it. The images were rather disturbing, and painted in gold, white and purple. Underneath the shelf was a strip of card that had the words ‘Ancient Chinese Puzzle Box’ inscribed upon it. I lifted it down, closed the door, and heard a voice from the lower floor. I looked over the railings at the top of the stairs and saw a tall man, who had a shiny bald head and a crisp blue suit. It was Iain Masque. The door behind him clicked shut. Every person on board had gathered around to see him. Burton and Forest had come inside and they too were watching him. It was silent for a few moments, and then he spoke.
“Greetings friends. Thank you all for coming to my little New Year’s Eve fête. If we get to the château my good friend Martin Urfe will entertain us with his incredible illusion – Escape from Death. But that’s only the start. Take time to meet your fellow guests. Each of you has been especially selected. Please enjoy my ship and my collection. I promise you that this New Year’s Eve will bring you amazing, even startling surprises.”
He finished his speech and walked slowly to the bottom of the flight of stairs that I was descending. He stood there, looking at me with an inquisitive smile. I reached the bottom and stared at him. Gold teeth twinkling in the light of the paraffin lamps that hung randomly around the wooden ceiling, he spoke.
”Ahh. My last guest, and such an important one too,” Masque said, still smiling at me.
“Why did you invite all these people here?” I said, trying to sound interested and polite.
“Give me the box and everything will become clear,” he said suavely.
“Just one more thing; who are all these people?”
“Oh, mingle, meet them. Such an incredible assortment of people and all of them
want something from me. But you are the wild card in this party. I’d tell you what you’re doing here, but then that would take all the fun away, now wouldn’t it?” Masque said with a ring of superiority in his voice.
When talking to Masque he made me feel almost guilty of something, though what I didn’t know.
I pondered on his question, ‘now wouldn’t it?’ and offered him the box.
“Thank you,” he said, his mood most different, “a most interesting sample this. It ‘s called the Puzzle Box of Death. Now, let me show you how this amazing box works. May I have everyone’s attention please? Oh…!”
Masque dropped the box. With both hands grasped to his throat, he fell to his knees. His rasping, as though finding it hard to breath, filled the room. Everyone looked at him. And then, with one last gasp of air, he fell, face down, onto the carpet. It happened so quickly that nobody had a chance to do anything, but Pipe fell forward and felt for a pulse. Then he rose to his feet, looking rather pale, and proclaimed solemnly, “Our host…is dead.”
These words spread around the ship like an icy wind. Everyone stared at the corpse, and nobody knew what to do. The first movement was made by Lord Forest. He walked swiftly down the stairs, as though nothing had happened and grabbed Masque under the arms and dragged him out of the door. I noticed that Masque had his eyes open. I was sure they were shut when he first fell to the floor, but I thought nothing of it.
I wish I could have watched the rest of the guests when Masque had died, or been killed, to see who wasn’t surprised. And another thing that bothered me a little; why was I asked to take the box to Masque. I could feel the guests, glaring at me, as though it was my fault for Masque’s unexpected death. So I decided to leave the room through the door that Forest had used. I found myself in a deserted corridor. It was quite a long way down before you reached the stairs that led to somewhere else.
The hallway was carpeted with a blood-red colour carpet with images of serpents in gold around the edge. To my right there was a door through which I wanted to go, but saw there was a lock like those found on safes. I knew that I was never going to guess the combination, but still, I advanced on the door. To my surprise I found it slightly ajar, and I could see nothing but darkness beyond the crack.
I slowly pushed open the door and stepped inside. Behind the door I could make out the shape of a paraffin lamp with the light coming from the corridor outside. I pulled out a little box of matches that I used for my pipe, and lit the lamp. The room illuminated and I could see this was used as a storeroom. There were boxes, barrels, pressure taps, stools, chests of draws, rolls of carpet, cobwebs, dust and even a bent trombone. At the far end out of my reach, I could see a boarded-up door, blocked by even more boxes.
In a chest to my left I could see that the lid was open and it looked disturbed. There was no layer of dust and broken cobwebs, unlike everywhere else, which was thick with a layer of dust. This was obviously due to the fact that somebody had been in it to find, or get, or maybe even steal, something that didn’t belong to them. This was only a mere assumption, but to me, that’s how the evidence fitted. I bent down to examine further, when a voice behind spoke. I jumped up to find Forest staring at me, the dark bags underneath his eyes,
enchanted by the effects of the flickering flame.
He spoke in a voice most unlike his usual. He said he’d taken the body of Masque upstairs so as not to upset the women.
He turned and left, leaving me, still slightly shaken to search the room properly. I didn’t find anything of interest in the chest, but I did find some gloves on a shelf that I thought they would be useful to pick the puzzle box up with.
I went through the rest of the room, checking every corner and every shelf. I didn’t find anything of interest, so I left, going back to pick up the puzzle box, after extinguishing the candle.
When I entered the room, nobody looked at me nor spoke to me as I lifted up the box and swiftly left to examine the piece in private.
I discovered three holes, in the shape of a triangle, on the base of the box. I cautiously placed one finger in each hole, wearing the gloves at all times. Then, to my sheer luck and amazement, the box opened up on hinges playing an eerie, spine chilling, tune. There was also a key. It was of pure gold. I slowly and carefully lifted the key and the music stopped.
The key had a number printed onto it, but was obscured. It took me several minutes, directly under a lamp, to read the digits. It was the number ‘13’. This had to be a room somewhere on this ship, I thought. There was one only problem; the stairs were blocked and I didn’t want to give anybody any more reasons not to like me, so I had no alternative.
I looked around the corridor and found a section of the highly decorative wallpaper was ripped. I didn’t notice what it was at first, but when I took a few steps backwards I saw that the rips made the shape of a rectangle, but not just an ordinary rectangle; it was a door. It had a cleverly disguised door knob that was actually a screw protruding out of the wall.
I checked that no one was watching, though I had a shrewd suspicion someone was, and tried to pull on the screw. It hardly moved at all, so I had to putdown the puzzle box and use both hands. The door finally gave way, and I walked inside, (forgetting totally about the Chinese Puzzle Box), shutting the door, this time with a real handle, behind me.
I found myself in a dimly lit room that seemed to be made entirely of wood. I could hear the sounds of something scuttling across the flour, but what exactly, I didn’t know; the light didn’t touch the flour all the way over there.
I looked straight in front of me and saw an oak wooden door with the number ‘13’ nailed onto it, made out of the same metal as the key I had.
I walked towards the door and slid the key in the lock. I turned it anticlockwise and the lock clicked. What lay beyond the door was a complete and utter mystery to me, and with no clues I was quite apprehensive.
I cautiously pulled open the door, which actually was heavier than I thought. I slowly stepped inside when the door snapped shut behind me I turned around and frantically pulled at the door; it wouldn’t move an inch! I was trapped!
I turned back around, and looked at the room properly. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The room was completely covered in what looked like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Well, at least it did until I examined it more closely. Nearly the whole room was made of mirrors. I realised that the floor mirrored the ceiling, the right wall mirrored the left and the wall behind me mirrored the one in front.
Everything looked strangely out of proportion.
I discovered that the mirror to the right had something in the centre. I walked over to the opposite wall and scrutinised the tiles. They slid about if you pushed them hard enough. I must have to get the tile in the middle of the mirror, in the middle of this, I thought, glancing around the room and seeing that same tile in the centre of every wall and every reflection.
Left, right, up, down. I lost track of the movements.
At last the motif was nearly complete; three tiles left, two left, one tile left… BANG!
The door burst open. To start with I didn’t realise who it was. The bright light flooded into the room, dazzling my vision. An outline of a well-built man with his arm outstretched was blackened against the bright light.
“Don’t move or touch anything!” a voice screamed.
I couldn’t believe my ears, it was the voice of Iain Masque! What was he doing?! My sight was beginning to adjust to the light when a second silhouette appeared. This time it was Burton, who too had her arm outstretched.
The outstretched arms where clutching guns!
They stood there for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes. I could see Burton reaching for something out of her handbag; trying to conceal her movements from Masque.
I slowly reached for my pocket for something to defend myself with. I knew I had nothing of any use against guns, but I knew it would make me feel better.
The air was full of tension and suspense, and there I was, weapon poised, my destiny in my own hands…
By Andrew Bradbury